As we ended up going off of topic, I thought I'd move loic's last comments to here and continue.

Loic Wrote :

New and reserve German pilots aren't battle-proof as are the 600-1000 prisoners.

About the help the RAF can bring for the Big Move, I was thinking of submarine detection. But Germans subs are really not a major problem in July-August 40.

The French army is retreating in good order, see the OTL example of the western part of the Front. The retreat was (almost) perfect until the Dordogne. What was fatal to the French army (sorry, this is already known) are the fast motorized breakthroughs in the central part of the front (Loire and Saône) that won't occur in FFO.

Comment fron Franck (he is offline this week) about the BoB : since this action is starting later, the German know they won't have much time before the bad weather arrives, so they will probably directly begin in phase 2.

We're again far from the topic ...
First off Loic, the 600 to 1000, which I thought was 900, German pilots that were not reurned could have as much experience as a fresh trainee. As has been stated before, Most of the pilots who entered the BoF had no combat experience what so ever. What they did have going for them was the best training program short of Japan's in the world. This was only surpassed by the British Commonwealth training program and later by the USA who didn't care how much fuel then pumped into there training centers. What the pilots would provide is a quicker turn-around of the RLM to attack Britain. As most of the pilots were transport pilots or bomber pilots this means that any action after the BoF leading into the BoB will be more fighter centric and thus restricted to a phase 1 and phase 2 battle. With a longer phase 1 period until adequate bombers can be moved into place for phase 2.

U-boats not a problem from July to August 1940? Wasn't that part of the "Die Glückliche Zeit" or Happy time which went from June to October 1940?

Retreat, that was one section of the front with a good commander. Other areas, including the supply and rear areas were far less organized by all accounts.

As for Frank's comment. Phase 1 needs to gain air superiority, phase 2 needs bombers which will most likely take several weeks to re-organize and deploy after the push south. The bad weather periods in the fall were not even on the RLM's mind and when the battle did go into that period, the German's just worked around it. In fact British historians consider the BoB finishing in October 31st, 1940 but most everyone else considers it ending in May 31st 1941 when the bomber units were removed to deploy on the eastern front. The intensity of the first months of the BoB are directly related to the possibility of Operation Sealiion being put into operation. When it was officially posponed the tempo of the RLM decreased significantly. With no opportunity for any form of Invasion the tempo and bravado/boasting of the RLM against the RAF will, imho, be a lot less. The battle will be very methodical and very dangerous for British pilots while not causing as much overall damage to the RLM pilots.

Well that's all for now.

Russ / Roller007